After facing widespread criticism following the shocking incidence of Dana Majhi carrying the dead body of his wife on his shoulders, the State Government on Wednesday came up with specific guidelines on transportation of dead bodies from the hospitals.
The Health and Family Welfare Department issued a notification in this regard by the order of the Governor.
As per the guidelines, a dead body must be treated with all dignity and respect. The body should be carried on a stretcher or a cot as far as possible. For medico-legal cases, funds for transport of dead bodies would be provided to all police stations. Police stations in urban and rural areas would be provided Rs1,000 and Rs1,500, respectively, while they would be provided Rs2,000 in a special case.
In the cases where the family asks for a dead body carrier, the district Collector should give funds as per the General Administration Department’s revised guidelines of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) 2016 subject to a maximum of Rs2,000.
Proper coordination between Collectors and SPs is also required for all this. The transportation of dead bodies, last rites, help to bereaved family under different Government schemes, etc., should be ensured through regular coordination meetings and monitoring, the guidelines said. Bodies won’t be allowed to be taken away from hospitals without ‘death slip’. ‘Death slip’ declaring the person concerned to be dead would have to be filled up by a medical officer of the concerned hospital, the new guideline stated.
On several occasions, unidentified persons die in hospitals and unidentified bodies are brought to hospitals. In such cases, the medical officer on duty shall immediately inform the local police station, the guidelines added.